For a savvy politician, Joe Manchin appears to have lost his touch.
For a savvy politician, Joe Manchin appears to have lost his touch.
Last month, the man who reveled in his leverage in an evenly divided Senate suddenly signed on to Joe Biden’s $739 billion spending spree, called, in one of the howlers of all time, “The Inflation Reduction Act.” In exchange, Manchin finally got the plaudits of the elite media and a promise from Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that a Manchin bill making it easier to permit energy pipelines (including a key one in a West Virginia pipeline) would have support.
On Tuesday, Manchin himself yanked the bill off the Senate floor when it became clear that environmentalists had convinced Senators Tim Kaine (D., Va.) and Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) to oppose it. Most Republicans favored a more serious reform by Manchin’s GOP colleague from West Virginia, Shelley Moore Capito. So Manchin ended up with nothing for his spending sellout — and don’t expect the West Virginia pipeline to even have a T-shirt for him.
It gets worse for the shape shifter from the Mountaineer State. Manchin’s approval rating back home is now 26 percent, and this week, GOP governor Jim Justice announced that he is considering running for Manchin’s Senate seat in 2024, when Justice is term-limited out of office.
It wouldn’t be the first time that Justice and Manchin have tangled. Justice ran for governor in 2016 as a Democrat and with Manchin’s backing. Justice in turn appointed Manchin’s wife, Gayle, as the state’s Secretary of Education and the Arts. But in 2018, Justice switched to the GOP and Gayle Manchin was soon out of the job when her cabinet post was abolished.
Now, Justice may be gunning to put Joe Manchin out of his job in Washington, one that seemed fairly secure until Manchin abandoned the folks back home to accept what is now clearly a foolish deal from Schumer and Biden.